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THE CHILD JESUS. 
Luke ii. 43- 



Our Duty to the Children 



By the / 

Rev. Wm. L. Worcester 



I. HEREDITY 

II. heaven's hold upon the child 

III. obedience 

IV. THE TRANSITION 




^^1 2) i^ - - 



Philadelphia 

American New-Church Tract and Publication Society 

2129 Chestnut Street 

1897 






Copyright, 1897, 

BY 

American New-Church Tract and Publication Society. 




I. 

HEREDITY. 

' * Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the chil- 
dren unto the third and fourth generation of them that 
hate me ; 

* * And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that 
love me^ and keep my commandments,'' — Exodus xx. 
5,6. 

npHE attention of reformers and educators, 
■*• and of all who have the good of the world 
at heart, is turning more and more to the 
children. It is a difficult task to re-form the 
character when it is confirmed and hardened 
with years. It is like trying to straighten an 
old tree, or to mould clay that has been hardened 
in the fire ; but the same effort wisely directed 
to a child may do much to /^r;/^ a character that 
is noble and lovely ; we are then bending a pliant 
twig, or moulding plastic clay. The period of 
childhood, of growth and formation, gives us our 
best opportunity to exert an influence which 
will be effective. When we realize how great 

a 



OUR DUTY TO THE CHILDREN 

the results of our influence maybe for happiness 
or misery through all of life, and not in this 
world only but to eternity, we feel the sacred- 
\^ ness of our duty to the children, and the im- 
portance of learning to do it wisely. To think 
that my association with a child, my words or 
my example, may influence his whole life in this 
world and forever ! It is a wonderful trust that 
the Lord has reposed in us in committing such 
great things to our care. 

And where does our duty to the children 
begin? with helping them as young men and 
women to choose their course in life ? But their 
ability to choose depends largely upon the in- 
struction and training which they have previously 
received. And our responsibility begins before 
the age when children need the instruction of a 
teacher, from the time that they first become 
conscious of their surroundings. Mothers are 
learning that the hours with their children when 
first impressions are received, and the first tender 
developments of affection and intelligence ap- 
pear, are full of precious opportunities. It is 
even known that influences affect the child be- 
fore his birth; yes, that the responsibility of 
parents goes back of this to the attitude towards 

4 



HEREDITY 

good and evil which they have assumed in 
their own lives. Let us begin at the beginning 
and inquire how heredity bears upon our duty 
to the children. 

By heredity we do not mean an arbitrary title 
to virtue or to sin, supposed to have descended 
to us from Adam. We mean nothing arbitrary 
nor exceptional, but simply the same kind of 
transmission of qualities and of traits of char- 
acter from parent to child which we recognize 
as a law of all generation. The seeds of plants 
and trees bring forth after their kind. When we 
plant wheat we know that wheat will grow, and 
corn from corn, and not thorns and thistles. 
Not only are the general characteristics of a 
species perpetuated in successive generations, 
but special qualities. So we plant in our gardens 
the seeds of choice varieties of vegetables and 
fruits, expecting that the peculiar flavor and 
quality of the parent plants will reappear in 
their descendants. We also know that if we 
continue the conditions which have given rise to 
certain peculiar qualities, those qualities will be 
developed to greater perfection. The same law 
holds in the animal kingdom. The gentle ani- 
mals and the fierce bring forth according to 

5 



OUR DUTY TO THE CHILDREN 

their kind ; and special excellences of parents 
are perpetuated and increased in their descend- 
ants. 

According to the same law of heredity in 
the human family, each race of men perpetuates 
its own peculiarities. Closer likenesses are no- 
ticeable among those of nearer kin. Children 
inherit from their parents and grandparents 
peculiarities of feature and of manner, liability 
to disease of special forms, or aptitude for one 
kind of work or another.^ This likeness of 
children to parents extends to things deeper 
than physical form and manner, to mental traits 
and to the inmost tendencies of character. The 
general principle of heredity is stated thus by 
Swedenborg : 

" Everything which parents have contracted 
by frequent use and habit . . . until it has be- 
come familiar to them, so as to appear as if it 
were natural, is derived into their children and 
becomes hereditary. If parents have hved in 
the enjoyment of the love of good, and have 
perceived in this life their delight and blessed- 
ness . . . their offspring receive thence an incli- 



" Heavenly Arcana," No. 2300. 
6 



HEREDITY 

nation to a like good. In like manner they who 
receive hereditarily the enjoyment of the love 
of evil." ^ '' As to hereditary evil the case is 
this, that every one who commits actual sin in- 
duces a nature on himself thence, and the evil 
thence is implanted in the children and becomes 
hereditary, and that thus from each ancestor, 
from his father, grandfather, great-grandfather, 
and other forefathers in order, it is multiplied 
and grows in his posterity and remains with 
each and is increased with each by actual sins. 
Nor is it dissipated so as not to be hurtful, 
except with those who are regenerated by the 
Lord." ^ 

How real a factor heredity is in the problem 
of human development and regeneration may 
be seen from the fact that men in their state of 
early innocence were born into love for the 
Lord and to one another, and into the faculty 
for knowing, appropriate to those loves, as ani- 
mals are born into the affections and percep- 
tions appropriate to their life. Then as men 
grew from childhood to adult years, they needed 



* *' Heavenly Arcana," No. 3469. 
» ** Heavenly Arcana," No. 313. 
7 



^ 



OUR DUTY TO THE CHILDREN 

only freely and intelligently to confirm the good 
that was natural to them. But hereditary evil 
has changed the inner structure of the mind and 
turned it away from heaven, so that children are 
born in absolute ignorance, and rationality must 
be developed by slow degrees and by external 
means. A factor which has produced such 
effects is not one to be ignored nor lightly 
treated.^ The seriousness of the question of 
heredity is still further seen when we learn that 
while some things of inheritance are compara- 
tively external and may in time be cast off, other 
things are more interior and enduring. In gen- 
eral, the inheritance from the mother is more ex* 
ternal in kind and may gradually be removed ; 
that from the father is more interior and is never 
absolutely removed, even though we become 
angels of heaven ; but it may be so thoroughly 
overcome and put to one side that it gives no 
more pain or annoyance.^ 

Instruction like this invites us to very serious 
reflection. At first when we are told that this 

* " Lesser Diary," No. 4635 ; ^* Heavenly Arcana," Nos. 
1902, 3318. 

2 "Heavenly Arcana," Nos. 1414, 1444, 1573, 4546; 
"Divine Providence," No. 79. 

8 



HEREDITY 

accumulated evil of generations is our inheri- 
tance, we are appalled ; and when we learn that 
a part of the evil inheritance can never be abso- 
lutely removed, the case seems hopeless, espe- 
cially when we see the conditions of evil in 
which so many children are born. It is well 
that we should be enough appalled to realize 
that there is no safety and no possibility of 
heaven for any one except through the mercy 
of the Lord. Trusting in His mercy, which is 
forever and over all His children, we may calmly 
study the principles of heredity and note their 
bearing upon our duty to the children. They 
compel us to feel kindly towards the children 
and their faults; they show us that the way 
of heaven is open to every child, but that the 
Lord's providence needs our co-operation ; they 
teach us that the first help we owe the chil- 
dren is to resist for their sakes the evil in our- 
selves. 

If tendencies to evil come to children through 
no wrong of theirs, how tenderly we must feel 
towards them and their faults; especially to- 
wards those who are born in conditions which 
seem to make their burden heavy. We may 
hate the evil thoroughly, and use every means 

9 



OUR DUTY TO THE CHILDREN 

to correct it ; but we can feel only pity for the 
children, and the tenderest desire to free them 
from the evil tendencies before they deliberately 
choose them and make them their own. 

And if we look tenderly upon all children, 
most of all must parents regard tenderly their 
own children when they recognize the children's 
faults as theirs. A child shows a disorderly 
appetite, a hasty temper, a natural deceitfulness, 
a complaining or critical spirit, and the parent 
recognizes it as a fault which his child has in- 
herited from him ; he perhaps feels that by his 
own indulgence of the wrong he has made the 
burden heavier for his child. Must he not have 
the deepest pity and the tenderest desire to help 
the child ? He knows the wrong from experi- 
ence, and the sorrows to which it leads. He 
recognizes it at its first appearance in the child, 
and is even prepared for it before it appears. 
With kindest sympathy he checks it promptly 
and patiently, and, as the child grows older, he 
lets him feel the encouragement of companion- 
ship in the conflict. One advantage which 
parents have above all others in helping their 
children is, that if they will they can understand 
them better, both their virtues and their faults, 

lO 



HEREDITY 

and can help them with a more tender sympathy 
and patience. 

There is hope for every child. We should 
look upon even the most unpromising children 
as angels in possibility. For common sense 
teaches, and the doctrines of the New Church 
emphatically teach by general principles and by 
explicit statements, that eveiy child whom the 
Lord allows to be born and to grow up in the 
world may, if he fights his battle bravely, find a 
home in heaven.' 

The Lord in judging takes all conditions and 
circumstances into account. He that knew not 
and committed things worthy of stripes is less 
guilty than he that knew and committed the 
same sins. '* For unto whomsoever much is 
given, of him shall be much required.*' * And 
among the conditions which the Lord takes into 
account are those of heredity and birth, which 
He only knows. '' The Lord shall count, when 
he writeth up the people, that this man was born 
there.'* 3 

^ " Heavenly Arcana,*' No. 828; "Divine Providence,'* 
Nos. 322, 329. 
« Luke xii. 47, 48. 
3 Psalm Ixxxvii. 6. 

II 



OUR DUTY TO THE CHILDREN 

Moreover, sin is not inherited, nor goodness, 
but only tendencies to one or the other. As 
tendencies, they are not a part of character, 
and, however bad they may be, they do not 
make one guilty. Evil dispositions do not be- 
come actual and a part of our real selves until 
we knowingly choose them and encourage 
them, and, so far as we are free to do so, act 
from them. Then they become ours, and by 
continuing to act from them we confirm and 
strengthen them. If one thus chooses evil, he 
is guilty, not before. "The soul that sinneth, it 
shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity 
of the father, neither shall the father bear the 
iniquity of the son." ^ 

It is possible to overvalue a good natural dis- 
position, and to exaggerate the disadvantage 
of one who has a conspicuously bad heredity. 
Just as evil of inheritance does not become of 
the character, and does not condemn, except 
so far as it is knowingly chosen and confirmed, 
so good of inheritance, even though it may ap- 
pear outwardly lovely, does not make a heav- 
enly character unless principles of truth are 

^ Ezekiel xviii. 20. 
12 



HEREDITY 

learned from the Lord, and the good is done 
religiously for His sake. We are taught that 
there is no depth to goodness that is merely of 
inheritance, which comes, as we say, by nature 
and not from principle, and there is no strength 
in it. It is compared to the goodness of ani- 
mals, and when it is exposed to any real temp- 
tation it has no power of resistance, but is carried 
hither and thither into evil/ It is possible that 
natural good and pleasing ways may sometimes 
be a hinderance rather than a help in the forma- 
tion of true, strong, heavenly character. One 
may move along easily and think himself good ; 
hateful evils may never show themselves in his 
life and compel him to recognize their hideous- 
ness, and to condemn them and resist them, and 
to seek the Lord's help against them. And so 
his character may never gain any real depth and 
strength. It may well be that such a life of 
easy natural goodness, which seems to us so 
lovely, has in the Lord's sight less of strength 
and of real fitness for heaven than a life with far 
less natural goodness, which, by many temp- 
tations and even through many falls, has learned 

^ " Heavenly Arcana," Nos. 4988, 5032, 6208. 
13 



OUR DUTY TO THE CHILDREN 

its own weakness and the hatefulness of evil, 
and with the Lord's help has set itself resolutely 
against it. " Many that are first shall be last," 
the Lord says ; '' and the last shall be first." ' 

It was otherwise when men were innocent, 
but in our day and generation it is permitted by 
the Lord that some awakening of our natural 
evil inheritance shall be for our good. It gives 
the opportunity to choose definitely between 
good and evil, to learn our own weakness and 
the Lord's saving power. It never is useful to 
do evil : that confirms the evil in us ; but if 
when we feel the tendency to it we resist it and 
turn to the Lord for help, we have gained in 
strength. We are even taught that those who 
go as little children to heaven, and grow up 
there in innocence, are at times allowed to feel 
something of what their natural disposition is, 
of what the Lord is saving them from, and the 
experience adds strength to their character, a 
deeper gratitude and trust, a more perfect safety 
and peace.^ There is this same mercy over the 
permissions of evil inheritance and evil associa- 



* Matthew xix. 30. 

« " Heavenly Arcana," Nos. 2307, 2308. 
14 



HEREDITY 

tion which rest so heavily upon some children 
in this world. Where the conditions cannot be 
wholly changed we can co-operate with the 
Lord's providence for the children by helping 
them to see the hatefulness of evil and to gain 
strength by resisting it. The evident evil ten- 
dencies of inheritance are the handles by which, 
with the Lord's help, one may take hold of the 
work of repentance and regeneration. *' Mas- 
ter/' the disciples asked, ''who did sin, this 
man, or his parents, that he was born blind ?'* 
" Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents,*' 
the Lord answered : " but that the works of 
God should be made manifest in him.'" Be 
the cause of one's weak nature what it may, its 
very weakness may become its strength, by 
leading him to find the saving power of the 
Lord. 

The providence of the Lord is with every 
human being, making possible to every one a 
home in heaven, and causing even the evil of 
inheritance to give unwilling help in regenera- 
tion. He labors always to restrain the effect of 
wrong within the narrowest possible bounds, 

' John ix. 2, 3. 
15 



OUR DUTY TO THE CHILDREN 

and to multiply good to the widest possible 
extent. So He teaches us when He speaks of 
visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the chil- 
dren unto the third and fourth generation of 
them that hate Him, and showing mercy unto 
thousands of them that love Him and keep His 
commandments. 

But because the Lord does His part, it does 
not follow that there is nothing for men to do. 
His providence always needs our co-operation. 
The very sentence which tells us of His care for 
future generations reminds us also of our ov/n 
responsibility. "The iniquities of the fathers 
"^ upon the children.'* The son is not made guilty 
by his father's sin; no one is condemned be- 
cause of a bad heredity ; and yet it still is true 
that careless and wicked parents make the way 
harder for their children. On the other hand, 
ought not a knowledge of the laws of heredity 
put it in the power of the well disposed to les- 
sen the burden which is handed on from parent 
to child from generation to generation? No 
doubt it ought. The words of the command- 
\ ment distinctly imply it. But here we are on 
^ holy ground. One who would assume to pre- 
determine and control the character of a child is 

i6 



HEREDITY 

surely touching with profane hands what be- 
longs to the Lord alone. Human efforts in this 
direction must be rather negative than positive. 
They must be efforts to subdue self, and to put 
thoughts of self far away, that there may be no 
hinderance to the Lord in doing His blessed 
work. *' Except the Lord build the house, . . . 
except the Lord keep the city. . . . Lo, children 
are a heritage of the Lord : and the fruit of the 
womb is his reward.'" 

Yet the thought of helping others should be 
a strong motive in resisting not only wrong acts, 
but wrong thoughts and feelings. Every re- 
sistance to evil lessens the power of evil in the 
world, for others as well as for ourselves. We 
resist evil for the sake of others when we put 
away some selfishness, that the Lord may work 
more fully through us and with us, and that the 
brightness of heaven may grow within us and 
shine around us. Especially must we think of 
this in our relations with the children. Parents 
— and the thought applies in a less degree to 
teachers and all who are with children — should 
faithfully resist every evil act and thought and 

^ Psalm cxxvii. 
17 



OUR DUTY TO THE CHILDREN 

feeling in their own hearts for the children's 
sake, that they may bring to them a good and 
helpful influence and not a poisoned one ; that 
they may not cut off from the children the 
blessed influence of the Lord, but in every way 
may suffer them to come to Him. Often one 
might grow careless or be led away by some 
sudden impulse, but the thought of the children 
who look to him for help reminds him to be 
faithful. " For their sakes I sanctify myself" ' 
It is our first duty to the children. 

* John xvii. 19. 



18 



11. 

heaven's hold upon the child 

* * Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know 
to refuse the evil, and choose the good,'' — Isaiah vii. 

IS- 

* * Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou 

ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou 
mightest still the enemy and the avenger,'' — Psalm 
viii. 2, 

/^UR study of heredity has taught us that ^/ 
^^ every one inherits a tendency to the evils 
which have been developed and confirmed in the 
lives of many generations of ancestors. There 
are also some good traits of inheritance, but 
these are a feeble ground of resistance to the 
evil tendencies, both because of their fewness, 
and still more because good of inheritance, until 
it becomes of principle, is superficial and has no 
strength of resistance in it. With such an in- 
heritance the case of a child would be hopeless 
if the Lord did not provide some strong basis 

19 



\ 



OUR DUTY TO THE CHILDREN 

of good to offset the tendency to evil. Without 
such help there would be no ground to stand 
upon to resist the natural tendencies, and one 
would inevitably be carried away by them. 
The Lord makes the provision which is neces- 
sary in a most wonderful way, and He makes it 
for every one. 

The Lord first provides that the natural in- 
heritance of a child shall not be awakened im- 
mediately at his birth. It lies dormant, and the 
natural tendencies to evil only gradually mani- 
fest themselves as years go by, some of them 
not appearing till life is far advanced. We see 
the wisdom of this provision of the Lord, for if 
one came suddenly at birth into the full force of 
the evil tendencies of his inheritance, it would 
be impossible to withstand them. But delay 
alone is not protection enough. Even if the 
awakening of the evil is postponed and comes to 
our consciousness only gradually, we still are no 
better able to meet it unless in the mean time, 
while the natural disposition is sleeping, good 
gains a positive hold upon us. If in some way 
this can be brought about, then when the evil 
tendencies are allowed gradually to awaken, the 

child has something to compare them with, to 

20 



HEAVEN'S HOLD UPON THE CHILD 

judge of their real quality ; he has some ground 
to stand upon to offer effective resistance. 

And this help the Lord gives. He provides 
that in the first years of life, before the natural 
inheritance is aroused, holy influences shall be 
with every child. He accomplishes this in part 
by touching the hearts of parents and others 
in this world, to show a tenderness towards 
little children, which calls out their affection 
in return. Of this we must speak later. But 
this is not the only means of giving the foun- 
dation of goodness which is so necessary for 
after-life. This is too feeble a means and too 
uncertain to be trusted to alone. The strongest 
influences for good with every little child are 
influences direct from heaven and the Lord. 
Angels of heaven are near to every child, and 
they use the precious opportunities while his 
soul is open to them to implant impressions of 
innocence, of goodness and truth, on which the 
strength of after-years and eternal life in heaven 
depend. They are among the best and tenderest 
of the angels who are assigned to this holy 
duty. The Lord tells us this when He says of 
little children that their angels do always be- 
hold the face of the Father in heaven. 

21 



OUR DUTY TO THE CHILDREN 

" Immediately after birth/' says Swedenborg, 
" angels from the heaven of innocence are with 
little children ; afterwards angels from the heaven 
of the tranquillity of peace, and afterwards angels 
from the societies of charity." ' Elsewhere the 
heavenly companions of children are described 
in other words. It is said that at first celestial 
angels, those characterized by the most tender 
love, are with little children, and later, as their 
state changes, spiritual angels are with them, 
those who impart more of the light of truth. 
Afterwards, when one begins to act from him- 
self and his hereditary evils awaken, then the 
earlier innocent states are withdrawn by the 
Lord towards the interiors of the soul, and are 
there stored up. ^ The innocent states and im- 
pressions which are thus stored up by the Lord 
are often called in the Bible " the remnant'* from 
which new life is to revive, and in our doctrines 
they are called ^' remains." To quote again a 
more explicit definition of " remains." " They 
are not only the goods and truths which a man 
has learned from his infancy out of the Lord's 



^ ** Heavenly Arcana," No. 2303. 
« " Heavenly Arcana," Nos. 5342, 2280, 3183. 
22 



HEAVEN'S HOLD UPON THE CHILD 

Word, and which are thus impressed on his 
memory ; but they are likewise all states thence 
derived, as states of innocence from infancy, 
states of love towards parents, brothers, teach- 
ers, and others, states of charity towards the 
neighbor and also of mercy towards the poor 
and needy. In a word, all states of good and 
truth. . . . These are stored up by the Lord in 
the internal man whilst he is altogether ignorant 
thereof, . . . and there is not the smallest of 
them lost." ' 

The use of this store of innocent states and 
impressions, so carefully laid away and guarded 
by the Lord, appears when the hereditary evil 
tendencies begin to awaken and to assert them- 
selves. Heaven already has a hold upon the 
child. He knows something of the happiness 
of good and innocent states. The new attrac- 
tions come into contrast with these. He has 
some means of judging the new states, and some 
ground of resistance to them. As the work of 
regeneration goes on, deeper and deeper stores 
of innocence are opened and brought to con- 
sciousness, so that as one grows in spiritual life, 

* '< Heavenly Arcana,'* Nos. 561, 1906. 
23 



OUR DUTY TO THE CHILDREN 

in a very real sense he is becoming again as a 
little child. 

The taste of heavenly goodness and happi- 
ness which is given to every little child in in- 
fancy, and the purpose of it, are taught in the 
prophecy spoken directly of the Lord, but true 
in a degree of every one, "Butter and honey 
shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the 
evil, and choose the good/' The value of these 
heavenly states as a ground of resistance to evil 
as it arises in the life, is taught in the words of 
the Psalm, " Out of the mouth of babes and 
sucklings hast thou ordained strength because 
of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the 
enemy and the avenger/' 

Do we not know practically something of the 
value of the pure and holy things of childhood 
stored away within us ? Are not a man's recol- 
lections of his early home, his memory of his 
father and mother and his love for them, among 
the strongest influences for good that he knows ? 
It is not rare that the recollection of some ten- 
der scene of home, the face of one who was dear 
and now has gone, comes to mind in a moment 
of temptation, and is the means of calling a man 
to himself. How often some early lesson, some 

24 



HEAVEN'S HOLD UPON THE CHILD 

line of Scripture learned as a child, some tender 
word of counsel, returns in a critical moment 
and gives the help we need! And these are 
among the most external of the holy things 
stored up by the Lord. The influence of the 
angels who were with us in the beginning of life 
is more deeply laid away, hidden from distinct 
consciousness. Yet it is the strongest tie. We 
have breathed the air of heaven ; we have felt 
its innocence and peace. It is our native land, 
our home, and though we may yield to the 
promptings of evil and come into other states ; 
though we may wander far from the Lord and 
heaven, we are as exiles, as home-sick children. 
There are inner yearnings for our first home and 
our angel friends. These are the strongest ties. 
They give us warning as often as we go astray. 
Unless we wantonly destroy them, they whisper 
ever in our hearts of heaven, and give us no rest 
until we find it. 

The knowledge of this store of innocent im- 
pressions which the Lord lays up in childhood 
as a basis of strength in later years, — as the 
foundation of all the happiness of heaven for- 
ever, has an important bearing upon our duty to 
the children. In the first place, it is a most 

25 



OUR DUTY TO THE CHILDREN 

blessed and encouraging thought that in the 
mercy of the Lord heaven is near to every little 
child, however degraded his natural surround- 
ings. Have you not wondered to see a ragged 
child playing with a few sticks and a heap of 
earth with the same content and innocent enjoy- 
ment which another finds in costly toys ? It is 
the angels who glorify all things to his eyes, and 
make the simplest possessions lovely. However 
hard the outward lot of children may be, however 
they may be neglected by natural parents, the 
Lord and angels do not forget them. By their 
ministry the basis of heaven is laid in every child; 
the ability is given to refuse evil and choose the 
good, and so to find a home in heaven. 

But this does not make it unnecessary for us 
on the natural side to do our part for the chil- 
dren in these first years of life. To know what 
angels and the Lord are doing should exalt our 
idea of the importance of these first years. It 
should stimulate us to do our part well, that we 
may not hinder but help the Lord and angels 
in their work. There is, perhaps, no grander, 
truer movement in the world to-day than the 
new effort to learn the nature of the child, to 
approach his opening faculties in sympathetic 

26 



HEAVEN'S HOLD UPON THE CHILD 

ways, and to assist their orderly and beautiful 
development. We can let the founders of the 
kindergarten and its wise workers be our teach- 
ers in many things. It is a promise of great 
good, that so many young women are making 
those principles a study, and are finding their 
application in the school and the home. Know- 
ing, as we do, how near heaven is to children, 
and that the Lord has provided these first years 
of innocence as a means of laying a basis of 
good on which regeneration and heaven for the 
child must rest, we can avail ourselves of the 
methods of wise teachers with a still deeper pur- 
pose than their discoverers knew. In all our 
efforts for the children we look beyond their 
natural development and their preparation for 
usefulness in this world, to the awakening and 
strengthening of their spiritual life. In what we 
do for children we know that we are not alone, 
but are co-operating with the Lord and angels 
in storing up during years of plenty the corn 
which shall preserve their life in the years of 
famine which must follow. 

Knowing the purpose of the Lord for little 
children, a wise mother or teacher feels every 
smallest contact with a child to be a precious 

27 



OUR DUTY TO THE CHILDREN 

opportunity. Care of the child is not a hard- 
ship to be got rid of as easily as possible. A 
mother feels that she cannot do a nobler and 
more useful work than to cherish this begin- 
ning of immortal life. The opportunities to co- 
operate with the angels begin from the very be- 
ginning. Remember the description that was 
quoted of the treasures of innocence that are 
laid up in childhood. They are not only things 
learned from the Holy Word, but states of inno- 
cence from infancy, states of love towards par- 
ents, brothers, teachers, and friends, states of 
charity towards the neighbor, and of mercy 
towards the poor and needy; in a word, all 
states of good and truth. 

From the very beginning there is opportunity 
to encourage these states of innocence. The 
love in a mother's voice does something ; her 
lullaby as she puts her child to sleep, her smile 
which awakens an answering smile of love. 
Who shall say that her own cheerful, useful, 
holy thoughts, as she sits by her sleeping child, 
or passes in and out where it is lying, have not 
an effect upon the opening life ? As the child 
grows, the variety of the mother's opportunities 
increases. She does not yield to every wish, in 

28 



HEAVEN'S HOLD UPON THE CHILD 

the thought that if the child is gratified angels 
have the best opportunity to do their blessed 
work. In some of the child's wishes the mother 
sees a sign of selfishness, of greediness, of 
wilfulness. To encourage that would be to 
hinder the angels in their work. So from the 
very first she checks these unholy things in 
wise, loving ways, and encourages instead states 
that are free from selfishness. The effort to 
bend the child to these most innocent states and 
most open to the influences of heaven cannot 
begin too soon. And who can see the oppor- 
tunities so quickly as the wise mother ? Where 
can the same tenderness and patience be found 
as in the mother's love ? How carefully for the 
child's sake must parents and teachers avoid all 
anger or other unheavenly feelings in their re- 
lations with the children, which cannot fail to 
call out unheavenly feelings in return ! They 
lead the awakening senses of the child to beau- 
tiful things in the world around him. They 
take advantage of his association with other 
children at home or in school to encourage a 
kind and generous spirit. They lead the child 
to find pleasure in being helpful in little ways. 

Every hour that the child is kept in a good and 

29 



\ 



OUR DUTY TO THE CHILDREN 

heavenly state, the hold of heaven upon him is 
strengthened. Does the nurse who tends the 
baby, does the mother herself, appreciate her 
opportunity ? 

And among the treasures which may be 
stored up in children's hearts we must not for- 
get the influence of sacred things, especially the 
influence of the Lord's Word and His prayer. 
We know the peculiar charm which the Bible 
stories have for children when simply and rever- 
ently read to them. We are taught that the 
reverent reading of the Bible, and the repeating 
of the Lord's prayer, brings heaven near to 
every soul, but that this is especially true of 
little children.' We must not deprive them of 
this precious help. We need not wait till they 
can fully understand the Bible. (Will that time 
ever come?) Choose the simple stories that 
they love, and find the time before they sleep 
at night, or some quiet Sunday hour, when they 
will listen reverently. As they can, let them 
learn the prayer and other simple words of 
Scripture. Learned now, they will be an eternal 
possession and a source of untold strength. 

* " Heavenly Arcana,^' Nos. 1776, 1871. 
30 



HEAVEN'S HOLD UPON THE CHILD 

And in all this seek to make the reading and 
the learning pleasant to the children; a duty, 
but a pleasant duty, that the moments with the 
Lord's Word may be precious memories laid 
away among the most tender associations of 
family and church and home. The mother by 
the bedside of her child, the teacher with her 
class in Sunday-school, should know the value 
of every holy moment when the thoughts and the 
affections are turned to the Lord and heaven. 

In many such ways which love and experience 
teach, those who are intrusted with the care of 
children on the earthly side may co-operate with 
the Lord and angels in laying up the store of 
innocence which will enable them to refuse the 
evil and choose the good; which will be a 
source of strength to them in the temptations 
which must come ; which will give heaven an 
entrance to their souls, and a hold which — let 
us pray — will never be shaken off, but will resist 
all strains and bring them safely home. 



31 



III. 

OBEDIENCE. 

" And he said unto them^ How is it that ye sought 
me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father' s busi- 
ness ? 

* * And they understood not the saying which he spake 
unto them, 

''And he went down with them, and came to Naza- 
reth, and was subject unto them : but his mother kept 
all these sayings in her heart, 

*' And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in 
favour with God and man,'' — Luke ii. 49-52. 

WE must now follow the development of 
the child from infancy through boy- 
and girlhood, the period say from seven to 
seventeen years, reserving for a future study 
the transition period which leads to man- and 
womanhood. The famiHar passage from the 
Gospel taken as our text presents simply and 
beautifully the Lord's example in childhood and 
youth, the consciousness of higher work before 
Him, and the preparation for it by faithful sub- 

32 



OBEDIENCE 

jection to natural parents, and to the circum- 
stances of humble life in this world. It will 
help us to see and to do our duty to the children 
at this stage of their development to know 
what the essential quality of this period of life 
is ; what kind of goodness ought to be expected 
at this age, and what its special place is in the 
life-history of each one. If we express in one 
word the essential quality of this period of life, 
and the element which it should contribute to 
heavenly character, the word is obedience. By 
and by will come the time to choose our course 
of life, but first the Lord gives opportunity for 
our faculties to be developed and trained to 
obedience, so that when we reach the age of 
choice we shall have well-disciplined minds and 
bodies which can be trusted to carry our choice 
into effect. As in any trade or art, one first 
learns the use of his tools, and trains his hand 
to follow the models set by others, before he un- 
dertakes original work. One thing at a time. 
In childhood to develop the faculties and bring 
them into willing obedience ; afterwards the re- 
sponsibility of guiding them. 

The physical powers must learn obedience; 
they must be developed and disciplined to quick 
3 33 



OUR DUTY TO THE CHILDREN 

and skilful action. The hands and feet must 
become strong and willing servants. The senses, 
too, must learn obedience, to see and hear accu- 
rately, and to report truly what they receive. 
All the members and faculties of the body must 
learn obedience, till their efforts, at first weak 
and blundering, grow strong and perfect. The 
mental powers at the same time need similar 
training. The thought must gain the ability to 
apply and concentrate itself, and, like the senses 
and the hands, to do accurately what it is set to 
do. The same lesson must reach to the highest 
plane of faculties, and the affections must learn 
obedience. Children must gain the power to 
turn from what is pleasant, if it is forbidden, and 
to yield their will to their parents and to others 
who are in place of parents. To do this and to 
do it bravely, to do it promptly and even cheer- 
fully, is the crown of childhood's work. For 
skilful hands and brain are useless and perhaps 
worse than useless if the will is ungoverned. 
If the will has learned obedience, all the disci- 
pline of thought and hand is turned to good 
account. 

We appreciate the value of the first innocence 
of childhood only when we know its use in after- 

34 



OBEDIENCE 

life, and so with this lesson of obedience. If it 
were a mere question of the child's present hap- 
piness and our own, we might often not have the 
patience to teach his desires to obey ; we might 
often with mistaken kindness yield. But con- 
sider the injury, the loss to the child. He fails 
to gain the mastery over his will, which of all 
forms of obedience is the most essential. By 
and by he will outgrow our care and he will 
have, of his own accord, to give obedience to 
the Lord's commandments. How easy this will 
be if he has learned to yield his will promptly 
and cheerfully to his parents ! How hard it will 
be if he has not learned obedience, but is led by 
his passions and appetites and his own pleasure! 
Childhood was the time to learn the lesson, and 
to learn it easily. It is hard to teach skill to 
the old hand which has been untrained in youth. 
It is hard to discipline the powers of thought 
late in life. It is harder still, far harder, to teach 
obedience to the will which has grown up to 
have its own way. 

Yet obedience must be learned. God's laws 
are as unchanging as His love. We cannot dis- 
obey them, we cannot evade them, and escape 
unharmed. They have the fixity of the rock. 

35 



OUR DUTY TO THE CHILDREN 

If we run against it, it is not the rock that suf- 
fers, but we. We see the fixity of Divine laws 
in nature. We do not try to stop the sunrise 
or to delay the tides. There is no physical 
safety but in conforming to the laws of God in 
nature. Just so in the realm of spiritual life. 
We may defy the commandments, we speak of 
breaking them, but it is we that are broken and 
suffer till we learn to obey. How much of 
such suffering is saved if we learn obedience as 
children, first to our parents, and then to the 
Lord! 

Our duty to the children in the years of boy- 
and girlhood is to help them to learn the lesson 
of obedience ; to help them to develop and dis- 
cipline their physical powers, and their powers 
of mind and heart. It is to help them to gain 
mastery over themselves, so that when presently, 
in the exercise of manly freedom, they make the 
Lord their Master, they can bring to His service 
faculties trained to obey and to be obeyed. They 
can look up to Him as did the centurion at Ca- 
pernaum, saying, ^' Speak the word only. . . . 
For I am a man under authority, having soldiers 
under me : and I say to this man. Go, and he 
goeth ; and to another, Come, and he cometh ; 

36 



OBEDIENCE 

and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it/' ' 
The Lord feels the same pleasure to-day in one 
who has learned this childhood's lesson of obe- 
dience as He found in the centurion when He 
marvelled at his faith and granted his prayer for 
help. ^ 

When we understand obedience in its broad 
and true sense, as self-mastery and discipline, 
we see that it is not something to be taught by 
contention between us and the child. We are 
not to conquer him, but to help him to conquer 
himself Nothing will aid us more in this 
great work than sympathy, unfeigned interest 
and sympathy in each step of his progress. We 
can share his pleasure in his developing physical 
powers, and can enjoy his successes in trials of 
physical strength, helping him to feel that it is 
himself rather than his rivals in the game that 
he is learning to conquer. We can also raise 
the child's thought from mere strength to 
quickness and skill. We can awaken his in- 
terest in these finer kinds of excellence, and can 
show him the pleasure of teaching his hands to 
obey accurately and to work with neatness, ex- 

' Matthew viii. 8, 9. 
37 



OUR DUTY TO THE CHILDREN 

actness, and grace. In encouraging a child to 
such excellence with his hands, we are also 
training the powers of thought and purpose 
which are behind the manual action to similar 
exactness and honesty. In this lies the real 
benefit of manual training as an element of edu- 
cation, and experience has shown its power as a 
means of awakening and strengthening essential 
elements of character. We must encourage 
and teach the child to use his hands and all his 
physical powers, and to use them accurately and 
well. 

Without our suggestion and help the children 
do not know how much their senses may be 
awakened and developed. Some children who 
have been thought to be entirely deaf have, by 
careful training, been taught to hear. This is of 
course in cases where the difficulty is not wholly 
in the organs of hearing, but in the ability to use 
them. It is a delight to all children to learn to 
use their eyes and ears ; and in this development 
what a help we have in nature, which is so good 
a friend to the children in many ways. We can 
go with them into the country and teach them 
to look and listen, teach them to watch the 
plants and insects and the birds, to learn to 

38 



OBEDIENCE 

recognize their faces and their voices and to 
know what they are doing at different seasons 
of the year. Children miss a rare delight who 
do not know the pleasure of searching for 
nature's secrets, always finding something curi- 
ous and new. In this they need a companion 
who knows a little more than they, and yet who 
is always learning with them with the enthusiasm 
of a child; one who can rejoice with them in 
the finding of a crystal, who can show them how 
the violet hides its summer blossoms, what the 
bumble-bee is doing in the clover, for himself 
and for the plant ; who can show them how one 
butterfly has learned to imitate his neighbor for 
his greater safety, and how the humming-bird 
trims her nest. We must be the guides and the 
companions of the children in this delightful 
lesson of learning to use their senses ; for we 
all are children together on the threshold of a 
world of wonders. Such nature-study assists 
development in many ways. It leads to much 
wholesome exercise in the air and sunshine. It 
tempts to long walks and to rough climbs. Its 
benefit is felt through all the physical plane of 
life. We have seen its use in developing the 
senses and training them in accurate observation. 

39 



OUR DUTY TO THE CHILDREN 

It also gives opportunity for close and careful 
thought in following the changes of a flower or 
insect, in studying the relation of plant and in- 
sect to each other ; in comparing one kind with 
another, noting their likenesses and differences ; 
in trying to learn the reason for what we see. 
There is no better discipline for the mental 
faculties, to give the power of application and 
concentration and the ability to make accurate 
decisions. We must lead the children's interest 
in these thoughtful ways, and must show them 
the pleasure of close and accurate exercise of 
thought and memory. 

The mental discipline which begins so natu- 
rally in the woods and fields can be carried 
further in the school-room. The amount that 
is learned is far less important than the way in 
which it is learned. It should be learned in a 
way to call out and develop the mental powers 
and deeper elements of character. To accurate 
observation and careful thought children may 
add the ability for true expression, learning the 
use of words and of that wonderful and sadly 
neglected instrument, the voice. Mathematics 
or history or language may give the same 

pleasure as games and exercises of physical 

40 



OBEDIENCE 

strength and quickness. There is the same 
pleasant sense that the faculties are learning to 
obey. During this period of childhood the 
memory is especially strong and active, and with 
the awakened powers of observation the memory 
may gain a store of knowledge which will be of 
after-use. Both from the book of nature and 
from the book of the Lord's Holy Word it 
gathers precious treasures and holds them faith- 
fully. 

But obedience must, as we have seen, reach 
higher ; it must extend to the affections. This 
is the hardest lesson and the most important. 
It needs our closest sympathy and constant 
help. We have spoken of a child's intercourse 
with nature as a means of training the senses 
and the powers of thought. It also appeals to 
the affections. Under wise guidance it awakens 
in the children a kindly sympathy with living 
things, a friendliness for the insects and the 
flowers, a fellow-feeling for the animals. It is 
wholesome to have the affections drawn out- 
ward and away from one's self. A child is 
also very sensitive to the influence of what is 
beautiful and grand in nature. He feels his 
smallness and the power of Him who made the 

41 



OUR DUTY TO THE CHILDREN 

mountains and the sea and calls the stars by 
name, and yet who remembers each bird and 
flower. Very little help is needed to turn the 
affections of one who loves nature to the Lord. 

We have spoken also of children's sports and 
games as means of developing and disciplining 
their powers. In these relations of children 
among themselves there is constant appeal to 
the affections, and our help is constantly needed 
to bring home to these activities of the will 
the lesson of self-control and obedience We 
must help the children to gain mastery, not only 
over the foot and hand, not only over the power 
of thought, but over the affections. The will 
must learn to obey, to yield promptly to what is 
right. We must help the children to see the 
beauty of a spirit which can yield and let others 
have their way. We see the contest going on in 
a child's heart, and we watch it with more in- 
terest than any test of physical or intellectual 
skill. We give the encouragement of our sym- 
pathy by a touch or a look, and when he con- 
quers and the selfish will yields, we let him 
know that we admire the victory. 

The children's sympathy with suffering and 
need is easily aroused, and when children's 

42 



OBEDIENCE 

sympathy is touched no generosity is so self- 
forgetful as theirs. We can encourage this 
sympathy and the spirit of self-sacrifice, at the 
same time that we teach it a wise moderation. 
Again, it is not a long step from the children's 
desire to be doing and their natural enjoyment 
in imitating the work of older people, — it is not 
a long step to the enjoyment of doing something 
useful. Here we have a constant opportunity to 
bring the lesson of obedience to the affections 
of the children ; for usefulness requires self-sacri- 
fice, the yielding of their natural will, to duty. 
We can show that we value their help, even 
when there is little valuable in it but the motive. 
We can assign them some regular work and 
encourage them to do it faithfully. As they 
become able to do small things faithfully, as 
their affections learn obedience, they are prepared 
to be trusted with great things. 

What patience it requires to teach the lesson 
of obedience ! What firmness and what kind- 
ness are needed ! What intimate knowledge of 
the children's interests ! What real sympathy 
with their failures and successes ! What exer- 
cise on our part of that self-control which we 
are helping them to gain ! But much may be 

43 



OUR DUTY TO THE CHILDREN 

done, and easily done, if we begin from the very- 
beginning to help the child to yield, from the 
first time that we lay the baby down and tell 
him that he must go to sleep, alone. He 
quickly learns that resistance and coaxing are 
useless, and is content. It is a great point 
gained. There will be other times with a grow- 
ing child when the parents* refusal of his wishes 
seems hard and arbitrary. He rebels against it, 
but he is inwardly ashamed, for he knows that 
his parents have his good at heart. He rebels 
but they are firm, for they know that obedience 
must be learned, and they are thinking of the 
time when the child is grown, and it becomes a 
question not of obedience to their will but to 
the Lord's commandments. They are firm, and 
when he is a little older the child thanks them 
for it with all his heart. They have not con- 
quered him ; they have helped him to conquer 
himself, to gain mastery over all his faculties of 
body, mind, and heart They have prepared 
him to go safely into the world, and to obey the 
laws of God. 



44 



IV. 

THE TRANSITION. 

*' When my father and my mother forsake me^ then 
the Lord will take me up,'' — Psalm xxvii. lo. 

^T^HE lesson of obedience has been learned. 
■*■ The next step in development is for the 
child to assume the guidance of his own life, 
which up to this time has been in his parents* 
care. The Lord, therefore, gives in opening 
manhood and womanhood the rational faculty, 
the power not only to know and remember, but 
to understand, to rise above facts to principles, 
and to see the application of principles to various 
conditions. The new faculty does not give us 
power to invent truth, — no human mind has that 
power, — ^but it does enable us to make for our- 
selves the applications of truth which before our 
parents have made for us, and so to look directly 
to the Lord as our standard of truth and our 
Teacher. The rational faculty is not given that a 

45 



\ 



OUR DUTY TO THE CHILDREN 

young man may turn from dependence upon his 
parents to dependence upon himself, but to de- 
pendence upon the Lord ; that he may advance 
from indirect obedience to Him to direct obedi- 
ence. " When my father and my mother forsake 
me, then the Lord will take me up/* 

When circumstances remove children from 
their parents' care ; when parents die, when chil- 
dren leave home for college or for work ; when, 
though they still live with their parents, they 
outgrow the dependence of childhood, then they 
should be prepared to transfer their dependence 
to the Lord. It is to enable them to do this that 
rationality is given them. This is the essence 
of the change from boy- and girlhood to man- 
and womanhood. 

To see clearly what the change is, is a help 
in knowing our duty to children at this transi- 
tion period of life. If we have the change in 
mind as something that is coming, we can do 
much to prepare the children for it, so that at 
the right time they can make the change safely 
and happily. 

From the first we can cultivate the thought 

that the children are the Lord's children. We 

shall not selfishly wish to keep them in igno- 

46 



THE TRANSITION 

ranee of their Heavenly Father, and claim all 
their affection for ourselves. We shall teach 
them about the Lord, and shall be glad to see 
their thoughts and affections turn to Him in 
childlike ways. If little children look up to us 
and think us very wise and good, we shall in 
our own hearts transfer their reverence to the 
Lord, knowing that whatever goodness or wis- 
dom they find in us is from Him ; and as the 
children grow older we shall not hide it from 
them that we are but giving them what the Lord 
gives us. It may be a trial to our natural feel- 
ings to think in this way of the children, as the 
Lord's, and gradually to lead their thoughts 
and affections beyond ourselves to Him. It is 
a process of weaning ; it is a taking the child to 
the tabernacle and lending him to the Lord for- 
ever. But we must remember that we cannot 
always nurse and lead the children ; they will 
outgrow us. If we love them we must teach 
them about the Lord as the only One who is 
good and wise, so that when the change comes 
they will be able to turn promptly to Him. 

We can also help to prepare the children for 
the responsibility which is coming to them, 
when they must be trusted to take into their 

47 



OUR DUTY TO THE CHILDREN 

own hands the choice of their course of life and 
their eternal destiny, by giving them even as chil- 
dren little responsibilities and gradually greater 
ones, and by helping them as children to be 
trustworthy. Suppose parents in their anxious 
carefulness for a child never let him go out of 
their sight ; they go always with him to prevent 
his doing wrong and to shield him from every 
danger. The child grows up with the feeling 
that nothing depends upon him; parents do 
everything for him, or if he must do some things 
himself, they carry the whole responsibility for 
him, they continually remind him of what he is 
to do and when to do it, and stand over him 
to see that it is done. When the child becomes 
a man and such care is no longer possible, is 
he well prepared to take up the responsibility 
of guiding his own life ? He would be better 
prepared if he had become accustomed little 
by Httle to meeting the difKculties of life him- 
self; if his parents in little things and for short 
times had trusted him to do right without their 
presence to check him or remind him. This 
mistaken kindness does not make a manly boy, 
nor prepare him for the time when he must 
assume the responsibilities of a man. 

48 



THE TRANSITION 

To take one practical example. We want the 
children, when they are grown up, to be honest 
and careful in the use of money. Shall we 
prepare them for the responsibility by always 
taking care of the money ourselves, always 
buying for them, and deciding for them what to 
buy ? Or will it be better for them gradually to 
learn the value of money by earning a httle 
themselves, and to learn to use it carefully by 
giving and spending of their own with some 
guiding advice from us ? It is no doubt easier 
to do it all ourselves, but there can be no ques- 
tion which course better prepares a child for the 
responsibility of earning his own living, or of 
caring for a fortune by and by. Moreover, 
trustiness in temporal things is the basis of 
trustiness in eternal things. 

There is nothing more destructive of man- 
liness of character than for a child to feel that he 
is never trusted, especially to feel that he is not 
trusted to do right without watching. Treated 
so, he very soon depends upon the watching and 
is not safe without it. But a child responds 
readily to trust reposed in him. He is upon his 
honor to do well, and the manliness in him is 
awakened not to disappoint the expectation. It 
4 49 



OUR DUTY TO THE CHILDREN 

is of course necessary to adapt the responsibility 
to the strength, and not to expect a child to 
know what he has never been taught, nor to 
exercise the judgment of a man. We must be 
sure that what he is asked to do is within his 
ability ; then to trust him, and to let him know 
that we trust him, begins to make a man of him. 
Faithfulness in a few things prepares him to 
make good use of many things. Trustworthi- 
ness cultivated in the years of boy- and girlhood 
prepares the children to take up the responsi- 
bilities of man- and womanhood. 

If the earlier stages of development have 
done their work we need not fear the transition 
period, which is commonly recognized as a try- 
ing season in life, and a critical one. Infancy 
has laid up a store of innocence which has given 
heaven a hold upon the soul. Childhood has 
given a store of knowledge of what is good and 
right, and has disciplined the powers to obedi- 
ence; the child has learned in small dangers 
and small duties not to disappoint the trust re- 
posed in him by his parents ; he is prepared for 
the greater responsibility with which the Lord 
now intrusts him. Still, the transition period 
needs our tenderest and wisest help. It is called 

50 



THE TRANSITION 

a disagreeable age, and often it does not receive 
the sympathy and consideration which it needs. 
It is a trying and disagreeable age for reasons 
which we shall consider, but it is most of all 
trying and disagreeable to the one who is pass- 
ing through it. He finds himself growing hard 
and critical ; he finds himself questioning the 
decisions of his parents ; he is rebellious and 
irritable; even the kindness of friends is an 
annoyance to him and he returns it with rude- 
ness. This new state is distressing to one who 
inwardly loves his parents and friends as tenderly 
as he ever did. He is ashamed of himself, and 
sorry, when he has been rude to them. Even at 
the time he treats them so it hurts his better 
feelings, and yet he seems hardly able to do 
otherwise. He does not understand the mean- 
ing of this change. He does not know why it 
has come, and whether it is temporary or must 
last for the rest of his life. He certainly de- 
serves not blame but kindly sympathy. 

The cause of the change is that the faculty 
of rationality is developing. When fully formed 
it will give strength and grace to the manly 
character, but in the process of development it 
shows an unlovely side. The faculty first de- 

51 



OUR DUTY TO THE CHILDREN 

velops on the natural side, and in a hard and 
intellectual way. Afterwards it may open up- 
ward and become spiritual, and its hard intel- 
lectualness may be softened by a regard for 
use. 

In the panorama of life presented in the Bible 
story, this faculty of rationality is represented 
by Abraham's sons Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael 
is the first, natural reason, critical and hard ; — 
the son of the Egyptian hand-maid, a man of the 
deserts, described as " a wild-ass man, his hand 
against every man, and every man's hand against 
him.'* ' In explaining these words about Ish- 
mael, Swedenborg describes the character of one 
whose rationality is developed only in a natural 
way, and is not yet softened by regard for use. 
" He is morose," he says, " impatient, in oppo- 
sition to all others, regarding every one as in 
the wrong, instantly rebuking, chastening, pun- 
ishing ; he is without pity, and does not try to 
bend the minds of others ; for he regards every- 
thing from truth, and not from good." * Again, 
the natural rationality Ukened to the wild ass is 

' Genesis xvi. 12. 
» " Heavenly Arcana,'^ No. 1 949. 
52 



THE TRANSITION 

described as "morose, contentious, having a 
dry, hard life/' ' 

When one who has been a good and affec- 
tionate child comes into this critical, contentious 
state, it may be hard for his friends, but it is 
harder still for himself; he is not to be blamed, 
but helped with the utmost kindness and patience 
to come through the Ishmaelite stage to a more 
lovely and wiser rationality. And how shall we 
help ? by disputing and ridiculing the first efforts 
of a young man to reason for himself? To be 
sure his conclusions are very crude; he sees 
only the natural side of the question that he 
undertakes to solve; he thinks httle of the 
opinion of any one in comparison with his own. 
But it may be an honest effort to use the faculty 
of reason. Shall we ridicule it ? Do we treat 
so a child's first efforts to walk ? Does a bird 
treat so the efforts of her young to fly ? This 
comparison is a good one, for the wings of a 
bird are emblems of the power of thought. 
*' He led him about, he instructed him, he kept 
him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stir- 
reth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, 

* " Heavenly Arcana,*' No. 1964. 
53 



OUR DUTY TO THE CHILDREN 

spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth 
them on her wings : so the Lord alone did lead 
him." ^ The patience of the parent-bird in teach- 
ing the young to fly is a suggestion of the 
Lord's patience with our first efforts to use the 
faculty of reason. It is a lesson of patience to 
human parents. 

Remember also that it is application to use 
which softens the hard intellectualness of the 
natural reason. We can be helpful, then, by 
leading a young man's thoughts to usefulness, 
by encouraging the doing of useful work, turn- 
ing his active mind from speculation and theory 
to good use, in which the truth will find the 
softening influence of good. There is nothing 
so wholesome for a young man or woman as 
work, good work, useful work; nothing is a 
surer help to bring them safely through to sub- 
stantial manhood and womanhood. 

What a help and safeguard it is if we have 
kept the children's confidence from their baby- 
hood till now, by sharing their interests with 
them, by meeting always kindly and patiently 
their confessions of weakness and failure ! New 



Deuteronomy xxxii. 10-12. 
54 



THE TRANSITION 

dangers and temptations meet the children in 
these transition years ; they need our instruction 
and warning, yet if we have not their fullest 
confidence, if we are not their tried and faithful 
friends, we cannot reach them with the help they 
need. ^ 

It may be with an agony of fear that parents 
see their children pass from their control. But 
if they have learned to be trustworthy children, 
trust them still, and let them know that you 
trust them. If we would have influence with a 
man and strengthen his manhood, we must treat 
him like a man. Coercion is not useful at this 
stage. If it succeeds at all it does so by forcing 
the young man to remain a child. There is far 
more power in trust. It recognizes the develop- 
ing manhood, and appeals to it to show itself 
worthy of confidence. We must respect a 
young man's right to think for himself; if he is 
crude in his conclusions, not contradicting him, 
but comparing his view with ours, as man with 
man. Such treatment disarms his opposition, 
the self-assertion melts away, and often, with 
almost his old childlike docility, he voluntarily 
seeks advice and follows it. 

Much of our ability to help the children in 

55 



OUR DUTY TO THE CHILDREN 

the new relation of opening manhood and 
womanhood depends upon our recognizing that 
it is a new relation. We must not treat them 
now as children, subject wholly to our will and 
judgment. The subjection they now owe is to 
the Lord, and we are their companions in the 
service. We help them with loving advice and 
sympathy and by doing our part to keep alive 
the tender things which give heaven its hold 
upon the soul. We help still more by expect- 
ing a young man to do right and trusting him 
to do it. 



56 



"I have just received a copy of 

A Practical Catechism for Little 
Children, 

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to cover. I think it among the best I ever saw, 
and wish it could be introduced into every Sunday- 
school and into every home in the land/' 



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The Angel of the State; 

OR, 

The Kindergarten in the Education 
of the Citizen. 

A Study of Pestalozzi, Froebel, and Swedeiiborg*. 



CONTENTS. 

I. The Secret of the Kindergarten. 

II. The Monk; the Knight; the Citizen. 

III. From Eatke to Eousseau. 

TV. Pestalozzi and Froebel. 

V. Ascent and Descent. 

YL Involution and Evolution. 

VII. SWEDENBORG AND THE DOCTRINE OF "Ke- 
MAINS." 

VIII. The Divine Kindergarten. 

APPENDIX. 

I. Dr. W. T. Harris on Pestalozzi and 
Froebel. 

II. Notices of Pestalozzi, by Quick and Morf. 

III. Extracts from Froebel's "Education of 

Man." 

IV. Estimates of Swedenborq. 



132 Pagres. tteavy Paper Cover 

Witli Desig^n by Aliee Arcber Sewall. 

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PERFECT PRAYER. 

HOW OFFERED. HOW ANSWERED. 
By REV. CHAUNCEY GILES. 



I. Efficacious Prayer. 
II. Nature and Use of Prayer. 

III. Hypocritical and Vain Prayer. 

IV. Conditions and Nature of Genuine 

Prayer. 

V. The Proper Object of Worship, 

VI. Hallowing- the Lord's Name. 

VII. The Lord's Kingdom ; What it is; How 
to Pray for it. 

VIII. Doing the Lord's Will on the Earth as 
in Heaven. 

IX. Daily Bread: What it is; How to Pray 
for it. 

X. The Forgiveness of Sin. 
XI. Temptation : Its Cause, Nature, and Use. 
Xn. Deliverance from Evil: How to Pray 
for it. How to Obtain it. 

Xin. The Kingdom, Power, and Glory of the 
Lord: What they are; How We can 
Ascribe them to Him. 

XrV. Summary View of the Lord's Prayer. 
The Logical Relation of the Special 
Petitions. 



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NEW EDITION. 

Nature of Spirit, 

AND OF 

Man as a Spiritual Being. 

By the REV. CHAUNCEY GILES. 



In America and in England probably nearly 
100,000 copies of this work have been printed and 
sold. It is the most useful missionary volume the 
New Church has ever issued. 

We are glad to offer it in entirely new and 
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Address WM. H. ALDEN, 

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IN 

SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. 

By REV- CHAUNCEY GILES. 

A new book with the above title has just been issued by 
the American New-Church Tract and Publication Society. 
It is published as a Memorial Volume, containing an appre- 
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excellent portrait of Mr. Giles, with a fac-simile of his manu- 
script. In it are for the first time published twenty-one 
discourses : 

I. Progress in Spiritual Knowledge. 

IL The Doctrines of the New Church a Spiritual 
Science. 

III. God and Man. 

IV. The Divine Method of Creating. 
V. Man a Form Receptive of Life. 

VI. The Kingdom of God within You. 
VII. Human Beauty: Its Origin, Nature, and the 
Means of Acquiring it. 
VIII. The Origin of Evil. 
IX. Sin and its Punishment. 
X. The Divine Mercy in Suffering and Evil. 
XI. The Atonement: Who Made it, Why it was 

Necessary, How it was Effected. 
XII. The First and Second Death. 

XIII. Heaven. 

XIV. Children in Heaven. 

XV. The Ministry of Angels to Infancy. 

XVI. Nature a Divine Language. 

XVII. Parables. 

XVIII. The End of the World. 

XIX. The Second Coming of the Lord. 

XX. How to Get the Most Good out of Labor and 
this World. 

XXI. Peace in the Lord. 

No pains have been spared to make this a worthy me- 
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Gilt top. Pp., 369. Price, $1.50. Address 

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A NEW BOOK ON MARRIAGE. 

The Sanctity of Marriage 

BY 

The Rev. Chauncey Giles. 



CONTENTS. 

I. The Origin, Nature, and Sanctity op Mar- 
riage. 

II. How True Marriages are Formed. 

III. The Ministry op Marriage in Eegenera- 

TION. 

IV. Eesurrection and Marriage. 
V. Marriage in Heaven. 

VI. The Marriage op the Soul with the Lord. 



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CHILDREN OF GOSPEL DAYS 



By the REV. WTVE. L. WORCESTER. 



CONTENTS. 

I. The Shepherd-Boy. 

II. Under the Palms. 

III. The Children's Secret. 

IV. In the Streets of Jerusalem. 
V. The Fisher-Boy. 



CLOTH. 64 PAOES. PRICE, 40 CENTS. 



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LESSONS IN 

CORRESPONDENCES, 

BY THE REV. WM. L. WORCESTER, 



This compact little book is to be commended to those 
who conceive of the Science of Correspondences as fanciful, 
abstruse, or artificial. The plan is simplicity itself. Appeal 
is first made to the almost instinctive perception that the 
object or phenomenon which is the subject of study has 
relation to some state or activity of the mind. This per- 
ception is made more full and exact by reference to the state- 
ments of Swedenborg. By means of the knowledge thus 
gained beautiful and helpful lessons are drawn from the 
"Word itself. 

After an introductory lesson, a few simple subjects are 
studied, — High and Low, Heat and Cold, Light and Dark- 
ness, — where common perception and common speech make 
the spiritual force of the words very plain. A series of sub- 
jects is next taken from the body and its operations and their 
correspondence shown with mental operations : Seeing and 
Hearing, Childhood, Youth and Old Age. The attention is 
then turned to the outside world. The three kingdoms of 
nature are studied and particular members of each, twenty- 
five of the forty-three lessons being occupied with these 
subjects. The course concludes with Representative Coun- 
tries, Palestine, Houses and Cities, The Tabernacle and 
Temple, Garments, Representative Persons. 

These lessons are intended as a help to teachers, but are 
equally well adapted to private study. 



Cloth. 398 Pages. 75 Cents. 
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